Superstar
by Barefoot XO
Summary: The secret, never-before-told, love story of Garik 'The Face' Loran and Syal Antilles. Canon compliant. Spoilers for the X-wing Series, Hand of Thrawn and NJO. Songfic.


I don't own Star Wars. It belongs to George Lucas. The X-wing series was written by Michael Stackpole &amp; Aaron Allston. The Hand of Thrawn was written by Timothy Zahn. The NJO was written by Robert Salvatore, Michael Stackpole, James Luceno, Kathy Tyers, Greg Keyes, Troy Denning, Elaine Cunningham, Aaron Allston, Matthew Stover, Sean Williams and Shane Dix. I also don't own the song Superstar. It belongs to the Carpenters.

This fic is named for and inspired by the song Superstar. I highly recommend listening to it while reading this.

Shameless fluff meets tragic romance... ;)

* * *

**Superstar**

* * *

They had been practising the scene for days. Jonnal, the director, wanted it to be a realistic and touching scene, showing the Rebellion in all of its evil light by showing that they would stop at nothing to stomp out even love as pure as this. Face played the lovelorn young Imperial officer, who had dared to love the daughter of a Rebel leader. Wynssa played that daughter, who had bravely defied her family to join the Empire and be with her love...

Face looked deep into Wynssa's eyes as the sounds of blaster fire raged overhead. "They're coming for us, Aliana... They'll be here any minute..."

Wynssa stared back, tears streaking her lovely face. "I know, Garrett. Promise me that my father will never take me."

He kissed her forehead gently. "Never, my love. I would go to the depths of Corellia's ninth hell for you." At this he produced a plastic capsule. "And now they will never have you."

She smiled at him gratefully. She opened the capsule, producing two pills, apparently filled with poison. She handed one to him. "And so we die this day, in defiance to the cruelty of the Rebellion that would not allow our love and in service to the Empire that gave us the strength to resist them for this long." She popped her pill in her mouth and swallowed it. "To the Empire."

He followed her example, swallowing his own pill. "Indeed my love, to the Empire." And with that he leaned over and kissed her. It was a passionate kiss, desperate, almost frantic in its urgency. As the kiss built, rebel troops could be heard ramming against the door. Finally, as the kiss tapered , the two young lovers lay down together on the ground, dying together.

The director had tears in his eyes. Only Loran and Starflare could have achieved such powerful realism, he thought. Their service to the Empire is truly blessed.

* * *

Garik entered Wynssa's room after they had accepted the wild applause of the triumphant cast and crew. She was sitting there, in a dark corner, brushing her hair in the mirror.

"You were spectacular, Wyn. You know that."

She turned to smile at her handsome co-star. "Thank you, Rik. You truly lived up to your reputation today."

He looked at her in semi-confusion. "Does that mean you liked my acting?"

She smirked at him. By the Gods he loved that smirk. "Yes your acting was good. But I was referring to your other reputation."

His eyebrow arched. "And what reputation is that, pray tell."

The smirk... that smirk... widened. "Your reputation for being the best kisser in the business. They say Tetran can't hold a candle to you and that's why he left acting."

He met her smirk with a smirk of his own as he leaned over and kissed her again. This vid had been special to both of them because it had brought them together. Just as they began working together on the various love scenes that this vid, _Scarlet Sunset_, entailed, they had discovered that the love that they portrayed was not that of Garrett for Aliana, but of Garik for Wynssa, and vice versa. Thus had begun their month-long relationship behind the scenes of their month-long vid production. Now it was coming to an end. Garik would go on to star in _Win or Die_, while Wynssa would go on to star in _The Moff's Daughter_. And so they kissed that same kiss that they had portrayed on the vids. The kiss that screamed at their desperation to be together and yet their knowledge that fate was irrevocably tearing them apart.

"I'll write you every day. I'll try to get a part with you again."

"I'll do the same, Rik. I love you."

"I love you too, Wyn. I'll see you again."

"So long, Rik."

* * *

Garik Loran, the Face, sat watching a holovid in his recovery room on Lorrd. He still had a bandage covering the blaster crease on his face... the Face. The holovid was Scarlet Sunset. _What is happening with you, Wyn? You think I'm dead like everyone else. What is it doing to you?_

He stared at the lovely face on the screen desperately wanting to find a comm so that he could contact her... Tell her he was all right. _Why does fate have to do this to me? _

Because, of course, he couldn't contact Wynssa, nor have anyone else do so. He was dead to the galaxy, and rightly so. After all that he had done for the Empire he didn't deserve a life.

_But Wynssa does. Can she be happy without me? I hope so. Because the fates know that the galaxy will be better off if the Face is dead and buried._

And so he watched the holovid that had brought them together. Blessing and cursing it to all creation in the same instant. _It brought us together... only to tear us apart again. It founded our love... it raised Imperial recruitment by five percent..._

Face turned crying into his pillow, cursing fate for letting him know Wynssa Starflare even as he blessed it for the same thing. In an hour he was asleep again, in a helpless oblivion of utter exhaustion.

* * *

Syal stared at the news reports, unable to believe her eyes. _Nooooo! You can't be dead. I love you, Rik. How can you be dead? How can my brother support this band of Rebels that took you from me? How? Wedge, how could you?_

_You said you'd see me again, Rik. So why did you die? Why did you break your promise?_

_I never even got to tell you who I really am. I'm sorry, Rik. I'll always love you, and I'll always hate the people that took you from me._

From that day forward, Syal, in the guise of Wynssa Starflare, became the finest actress she could, readily denouncing the Rebels as traitors to the Emperor in a silent profession of devotion to her fallen love.

It was around this time that a certain Imperial Baron came into her life to pick up the pieces that Garik Loran's death had left behind.

* * *

"Your performance is quite lovely, Wynssa. You should be very proud of your career. You have done so much for the Empire."

"Thank you, Soontir. Coming from the leader of the 181st TIE Interceptor Squadron, that's quite a complement."

He turned to her then, leaning forward so that only she could hear. "I had wondered if you might wish to make our relationship more... permanent."

Syal froze. _Oh gods. Not now. Don't do this to me Soontir._

He dropped to one knee before her. "Wynssa Starflare, would you do me the honour of becoming my bride?"

She did not respond for a long moment. _I can't do this. I'd be betraying Rik. But wouldn't he want me to move on? And wouldn't he want it to be like this, with an Imperial patriot instead of some scruffy rebel? It would celebrate those who fight his killers. Would it not be better this way?_

"Wynssa?"

"Umm... Yes Soontir?"

"I just asked you to marry me..."

_I don't know what to do. I hope this is what you'd want, Rik..._ "Yes Soontir... I'll marry you."

* * *

Face had seen the wedding on the vids. _Gods Wyn, why? This has to be the last straw. To leave the Empire I had to leave my love to its clutches._

Face threw himself into his new work with the Rebellion. In the ensuing time he had a series of torrid love affairs. Pranksters, actresses, soldiers, pilots, and commandos. None of them were ever able to hold a candle to his Wynssa. Even his relationship with Dia, which had begun shortly after his entry into the Wraiths, had been doomed to failure.

It had started off so well. Dia had even helped him get past his guilt at making Imperial recruitment vids. Then she had asked for something permanent. She had wanted to marry... and he couldn't.

_The only woman I ever wanted to marry was you, Wyn. As much as I love Dia, I could never let her take your place._ He had rejected Dia's proposal. Within the day their relationship had been over. Within the week she had put in for a transfer. Within another week she was gone from his life forever.

_What miracle would it take for me to find you, persuade you to leave Soontir and marry me, Wyn? Not a chance..._

* * *

Face walked into Iella Wessiri's office, head held high, ready to accept his next assignment.

She smiled at him as he came in. "Face. Good. I have a special assignment that I need the Wraiths to do. We're at peacetime now, so difficult assignments like this are few."

"Understood. What do we do?"

"It's actually something of a personal favour for Wedge. That's why I figured the Wraiths would jump at it."

"Anything for Wedge. What can we do?"

"He wants Syal Antilles found. His sister."

"Wedge has a sister?"

"Yes. She lived under the alias Wynssa Starflare for most of her acting career and even starred in an a holovid with you I believe." As Iella moved on she did not notice the momentary flare of shock that passed over Face's face. "She married Soontir Fel before he defected and is believed to be with him to this day. Soontir Fel was recently spotted on Nirauan by Master Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Wedge was hoping that you could get to Nirauan, sneak in, find Syal and contact her for him. You'll have all of the Wraiths and their resources at your disposal. Do you accept, Face?"

"In a Coruscant second, Iella. I'd be glad to see my former... co-star again." He picked up his assignment details and a few key pieces of equipment and fled the room at just shy of lightspeed.

Iella stared after him for a long moment. _I wonder what's gotten into him..._

* * *

Syal Antilles-Fel was strolling through the corridors of the base on Nirauan, looking for Soontir. He had sent her a message telling her to meet him in an unused corridor of the base, far from normal traffic. _This is very odd._

When Syal entered the small passage she saw a man cloaked in black waiting for her. Two more guarded the end of the corridor behind him. _It's a trap._ She spun to escape but found two more cloaked figures guarding the way she'd come.

As she opened her mouth to scream the man behind her clamped his hand on her mouth, silencing her. "Five and six. Guard the north exit. Three and four. You've got the south." The other figures moved further down the passage, out of earshot. The man let her go.

Now she was confused. "What's going on?"

He drew off his hood revealing his face... "Hello, Wyn. Told you I'd see you again, love."

The voice, the words and those eyes. "Rik? Can it be...? Can it really be you? What happened?"

"I died, and you got married. I just had to see you one last time. I'm sorry I left you but I had no choice."

"Rik. I'm married... I have children... I can't..."

"Don't say it, Wyn. I know. It hurts, but I know. I'll always love you, but I know that it wasn't to be. I just had to let you know that I was alive."

"I don't love him, Rik. I never did. But I can't abandon my children."

"And I can't abandon my people. They've become my family."

"So, we just go our separate ways..."

"Not quite yet. I have two things to do first." He produced a datadisk. "This is from your brother, Wedge."

She grasped it carefully, putting it in her pocket. "Thank you. I guess you're in the New Republic then."

"Good guess."

"What was the second thing?"

Face looked into Syal's eyes. "Something I have to do so that I can move on." And with that he kissed her, one last time. The kiss was from Scarlet Sunset... it was from that time in her dressing room... it was the kiss of two people never to meet again. And then it was over. "I'll always love you, Wyn. Always."

Tears were in her eyes. "And I you, Rik..."

"Call me, Poster Boy."

At that Face spun, walking out of her life forever. He would never bother her again, but would love her till the day he died and would never marry. Only Kell Tainer, his closest ally, would ever be told what had happened in that corridor, and Kell would keep the secret until the day he died.

As for Syal, she moved through her life as best she could, loving her children, pretending to love Soontir with an actress's pure talent, and secretly pining after Rik. She never told a living soul what happened that day.

* * *

It's different, but I think it works. More interestingly, it fits in with canon pretty well.

Jasper


End file.
